Today, the cost of doctors’ services, medicines, necessary procedures, and examinations often exceeds citizens’ income. The purchase of a V.M.I. (voluntary medical insurance) policy will help get out of the situation with a win-win situation, without worrying about the cost of treatment (Hamon, 2017). The registration of the policy guarantees qualified medical care in an insured event. In such situations, the insurance company will compensate the full or partial cost of medical drugs, examinations, and tests required for the patient’s treatment (Hamon, 2017). The issued policy of voluntary medical insurance allows receiving timely and operative help for all insured persons in state or private medical establishments, as stipulated by the contract. I chose the article “Trends in U.S. Health Insurance Coverage During the COVID-19 Pandemic” by Bundorf et al., for my analysis because the issue of health insurance became much more acute during the pandemic. I chose an article describing the general situation in the U.S. because Indiana’s health policy is subject to federal law.
During the study of the course materials, a great deal of attention was paid to patient health insurance. The article I chose discusses the changes in patient insurance during the COVID-19 pandemic. The main research question was whether insurance principles changed in the United States during the pandemic. The study design was cross-sectional, surveying more than 1.2 million American adults (Bundorf et al., 2021). The research found that while public programs were important in defending U.S. adults from pandemic-induced reductions in health insurance coverage at the cost of employers, many individuals became uninsured through the pandemic. E.S.I. rates similarly were shown to be decreasing throughout most of 2020, even after the March labor shortfall (Bundorf et al., 2021). While E.S.I. rates dropped, participation in other insurance increased. The findings suggest that a large part of the total decline in coverage happened during the three-month short span at the start of the pandemic.
The authors of the article offer several explanations for this. For example, at the beginning of the pandemic, people may have delayed seeking alternative sources of coverage because of significant economic uncertainty (Bundorf et al., 2021). Furthermore, the seasonal spike in COVID-19 incidence in winter may have raised motivation to get coverage since the chance of contamination has grown. Thus, several important conclusions can be drawn from this article in the study of health care, both in the United States in general and in Indiana in particular.
The main conclusion is that the urgent need for health insurance disorients people. Failing to find quick insurance options, they abandon it and thereby put themselves at risk. To solve this problem, Indiana could create a particular fast insurance option for emergencies. Such insurance should not take more than an hour to process, and it should be multifunctional. The processing speed is also critical because many people do not want to spend much time in social contact during a pandemic. The second conclusion is that a solid economic underlay is necessary for successful insurance. To increase the percentage of people insured, which is necessary during a pandemic, the state of Indiana needs a sustainable economy. It also needs transparent policies regarding insurance pricing so that people are not confused about insurance. Therefore, the article I reviewed provides many avenues for discussion and future developments in health insurance in the U.S. in general and in Indiana in particular.
References
Bundorf, M. K., Gupta, S., & Kim, C. (2021). Trends in U.S. health insurance coverage during the COVID-19 pandemic. JAMA health forum, 2(9), e212487.
Hamon, R. (2017). Healthcare delivery in the U.S.A.: An introduction (2nd Ed.). Productivity Press. Web.